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Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism: Morocco writing retreat vacation

Environment

Tissardmine is a unique place. It is owned and operated by locals and one Australian.

Itís focus is on learning, learning about Berber culture, the arts and language.

As a new business, we continue to work towards being environmentally sustainable. We are powered solely by Solar energy. In the future we are also planning to grow all our own vegetables, in the meantime we shop locally from the farmers who come to market three times a week. Currently we have chickens that provide our eggs.

Our buildings are made from rammed earth dug from our property and was built by local berbers from the neighbouring village and from Tissardmine. We use traditional building techniques and maintain the traditional architecture of the region.

We provide camel treks that are lead by experienced locals who are passionate about their environment and proud of their culture.

We do have showers and plumbed in toilets as a response to customer feedback but we do ask all guests to only shower when necessary and when they do, keep them short. The motto here is Water is Life and that means drinking it, not over washing in it. All our water comes from our well and is a finite resource.

We can accommodate up to 15 people. Our aim is to keep it small and personal.

Community

As one of the few businesses in the area, we provide employment for many locals through our need for services such as laundry, bread making, building and cooking.

At present we do not directly support any charities but we do work with the local association that works for the benefit of the community. Our current project is dealing with waste management in the village.

We hope that visitors to our area will respect itís beauty, isolation and the community that lives there. We ask only thatÖ

whatever rubbish you bring in, please take away with you (the most rubbish that is generated is through packagingyou bring a refillable water bottle (the 2nd greatest amount of rubbish created is from empty bottled water containers)you donít give sweets or money to the children - their dental hygiene is wanting and giving money encourages a dependent mentality.you are respectful of the culture and practices in the area, for example public displays of physical affection can cause embarrassment and showing a lot of bare flesh (especially bellies, legs and shoulders), also causes discomfort.